


Growing Pains

by Lumelle



Series: The Way Things Ought to Be [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Avengers
Genre: Avengers Family, Future Fic, Getting Together, M/M, Mutant Powers, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Protective Siblings, Teen Crush, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:58:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5435639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy has a crush. A hopeless crush, if one asks him, which really doesn't explain why he would talk about it with Tony of all people, when there are so much better choices. Except, of course, that Tony very much understands the appeal of tall, beefy men with blond hair and baby blue eyes.</p><p>Before he can follow Tony's suggestion and just talk to the oh-so-hot and sweet Teddy Altman, though, Billy's world is turned upside down when a confrontation with a bully turns ugly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A big jump to the future, I know, but this story wanted to get out. I promise I'll go back and fill in the blanks -- such as, say, how Tony ended up with Steve, and how Billy and Tommy appeared. (It's kind of Tony's fault, but then, what isn't?)
> 
> This work was written and recorded for @thisissirius for the 2015 Twitter Informal Podfic Exchange.

The thing was, there were so much better choices Billy could have made when it came to asking for advice.

Of course, not all the people around him were quite so excellent in this regard. Now, he might have had a good relationship with his parents, but there were some things you just didn't discuss with your mom, certainly not his mom. He could just imagine her reaction if he asked her how he could get the attention of a cute guy. He loved his mother, really he did, but he was also very aware that she was not the most, well, conventional person when it came to certain things, such as relationships. And as for his father, cybernetic constructs might have made excellent husbands and supportive fathers, but he was still sometimes quite puzzled when it came to the finer details of human interactions. Billy was fairly sure teenage dating fell outside his area of expertise.

He wasn't going to even think about asking his brother. Tommy seemed to sometimes still be under the delusion that pulling at the proverbial pigtails was a legitimate way of getting a girl to notice him.

Even so, there were better options to be sure. Perhaps not Uncle Pietro, who would have no doubt teased him for months, or Bucky who would not have been much better. There was Pepper, though, who no doubt had fielded much stranger inquiries during all the time she had known Tony, or Rhodey or Sam who were both unlikely to tease him too much and understanding of his attraction to the more masculine section of the species. Scott wouldn't have been too bad either, he'd certainly handled enough of Cassie's dating woes, and Steve would have maybe teased him but Billy knew he wouldn't have told anyone, and —

Well. The point was, there were other people he could have gone to. And yet here he was, standing in the middle of Tony Stark's workshop, waiting for him to put down whatever his current project was.

"Right, now where was I?" Tony set down his tools, running a hand through his mussed-up hair. It was in the usual messy state that suggested Tony had spent quite a while in his workshop already, occasional touches having long since ruined what styling there might have been at some point. It kind of made Billy feel better about his own unruly mop of hair, or at least hopeful it might one day turn into something presentable. "You wanted to say something?"

"Ah, yeah." Billy leaned against a nearby worktable, feeling a bit self-conscious as he had to raise his voice to be heard over the background music. "Actually, I was hoping to talk about something… personal."

"Personal? And you're coming to me of all people?" Tony blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "If you've been drinking, I'm going to tell your mother. She'd turn me into a very unattractive smear on the wall otherwise."

"What? No!" Billy blurted. "It's just —" He sighed. Better get it out of the way. "It's just… there is this boy."

"Boy?" Tony's eyebrows rose, now, and he smirked a bit. "Would it be bad form to say I called it? Because I totally called it."

"Okay, first, that's not the point, and second, there had better not be a betting pool on my sexuality." Billy sighed again. "But, yeah. There's this guy at my school, and he probably doesn't even know that I exist, and I'm not even sure if he's into guys at all but he's pretty much the hottest thing ever and I'm basically pining."

"And you decided to come to me with your woes why, exactly? I mean, not that I'm not flattered, but you should know by now that I'm not exactly a good role model when it comes to dating."

"Oh, I don't know, you and Steve seem to have done pretty well for fifteen years or so." Billy paused. "And the reason I came to you is because I know you're the least likely to give me shit about it."

"Really? Have you actually met me, kid? I mean, not that I go out of my way to torment my darling grandsons, but I'm pretty much the king of giving people shit." Tony walked past another work table to a small fridge, opening it and taking out two cans of coke.

"Because he's tall and muscular and has blond hair and the bluest eyes ever and the most amazing smile I've ever seen in my life."

"I think you're exaggerating the resemblance." Tony tossed one of the cans at him. "I require proof before I can judge whether this is an issue worthy of teasing."

Billy narrowed his eyes as he popped the can open, focusing on the image that plagued his mind pretty much constantly. The illusion he summoned wasn't quite perfect, it wavered and was somewhat see-through, but he hoped it would illustrate his point. Even imperfect as the image was, this was Teddy Altman, standing in the middle of the workshop as tall and amazing and beautiful as always, eyes twinkling as he laughed at something.

Tony paused, looking at the image. "So you're saying this is him. And not just how you think of him, or whatever?"

"You think I'd need to try to improve the picture when he looks like this?"

"I guess you wouldn't. And he's actually this big? You sure he's your age and hasn't just been held back like five times?"

"Yeah, this is life size. He's on the basketball team, he more or less shot up a foot and a half last summer. And far as I know, he's never had as much as a detention. Some of his teammates are kind of jerks," bullies was more like it, really, "but he's called them out before and they don't really tease anyone when he's around."

"Well, I'll be damned. You actually went and found yourself a teenage Captain America." Tony shook his head. "And, uh. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Nothing, really. Mostly I just want to whine about how I have absolutely no chance whatsoever of ever getting him to even learn my name."

Tony gave a sage nod. "And I'm your choice of an understanding ear because I understand the appeal of big, beefy blondes with a heart of gold. This adonis of yours have a name?"

"Ah. His name is Teddy." As Tony smirked, Billy felt his cheeks heating. "That's his name! Theodore Altman. I'm not quite far enough gone to start giving him cutesy nicknames of my own."

"Good, because that would be a boring one. I'd expect at least a squeezebear out of you, my young padawan." Tony glanced toward the half-finished project on his worktable, then shrugged. "You know what, I'll have to wait out the production for a spare part anyway. How about we sit down somewhere and you can tell me a bit more about this absolutely adorable young man of yours?"

"You wouldn't mind?" Not that he expected Tony would make such offers unless he was actually willing to follow through, but Billy had to admit he was somewhat surprised. Tony wasn't quite as averse to emotions and such things as Tommy claimed to be, but he did tend to roll his eyes at the more touchy-feely stuff.

"Eh. Don't start reciting poetry about his shiny blue eyes, and I think I can stomach it. I'll take my payment in the form of gloating about my superior knowledge when everyone else finds out about your new boyfriend."

"He's hardly going to be my boyfriend," Billy muttered. "It's not like he has any reason to be interested in me."

"Excuse me? You're cute, witty, have an awesome family, and you know Tony Stark. What's there not to like?"

"Yeah, because I'd really like to date a guy who'd only be interested because of who my parents are." They were more or less anonymous at school, and he liked it that way for now, for all that Tommy sometimes grumbled. Their parents had gone to great lengths to keep them out of the public eye, and for all that Billy sometimes thought it might have been nice to have people know who he was, he was aware that being able to go to a regular school and out at town without a fear of kidnapping or angry villains kind of outweighed the downsides of mostly getting ignored by everyone.

Well, ignored and teased, and sometimes shoved around when Tommy wasn't there to glower. But he wasn't exactly about to mention that to anyone.

"Of course not. I'm just saying you've got plenty of good qualities. Trust me, I should know, I was an absolutely hopeless case when I was your age." Tony grinned. "And perhaps after you've told me all about you know this guy of yours, we can try to think up a strategy for how you can win him over."

"This is going to turn out to be some sort of a mad scheme, isn't it." And yet, Billy couldn't help but feel a bit warm inside.

"Now, hush and let your Grandpa Tony handle things."

"That's kind of what I'm afraid of."

*

"You look awfully chipper."

"Hm?" Tony looked up from where he was preparing a sandwich, grinning as he saw Steve standing at the kitchen door with raised eyebrows. "What, I'm not allowed to be happy, now?"

"Let's just say I've learned to find it suspicious when you are." Steve was grinning, though, so clearly he wasn't as suspicious as he claimed to be. "What are you scheming, now?"

"Why, Steve, I'm absolutely appalled that you would suggest such a thing! I'm not scheming anything. Nor am I plotting, planning, thinking up, or otherwise addressing any matters of mischief." He set down the top slice of bread with a flourish, then took a knife to cut the sandwich in half. "I think you're just trying to make me feel vaguely guilty so I'll make you a sandwich, too."

"I can actually feed myself, you know." Steve chuckled, stepping closer. "Seriously, though, it's rare to see you this cheerful unless something has happened."

"And if I told you it's a secret?" See? He wasn't entirely untrustworthy. Billy probably didn't want Steve to know about his own big blond crush just yet, so Tony would stay quiet.

"I would very much wonder about that, considering that most of the time you can't wait to share your secrets with me." Steve set his hands on Tony's hips, looking down at him. "Is something going to blow up? I'm pretty sure I'm required to know if that happens."

"If something does, then things have gone very far off course." After all, his final advice to Billy had mostly consisted of 'go up to him and say hi', which also comprised more or less all of his knowledge of teenage dating. When he'd been Billy's age he'd had very little time for affection towards anything that wasn't made of circuit boards and metal.

"So something is going on, then." Ah, his ever sharp captain demonstrating his observational skills.

"I promise you it's nothing major." Tony leaned in to press a little kiss to the side of Steve's jaw, then drew back again so he could actually start eating his sandwich. Sure, Steve was kind of awesome and all, but he was hungry and despite the popular opinion considered himself quite capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much. "If everything goes well, you'll hear about it soon enough. And if not, well, I rather suspect the resulting carnage will be mostly limited to ice cream."

"Don't tell me there's relationship drama in the team." Steve groaned. "I knew having everyone move to the Tower again would be bad."

"Hush, it's not that serious. And I really don't see how it's that different from having most of the team living in the headquarters, except now it's easier to sneak the kids off to school without it being painfully obvious." And really, Stark Tower should not have been an inconspicuous place to raise children, but then he'd been very devious indeed and actually renovated a few floors into very high-rent apartments. Not that there were many families with children making any use of such prime Manhattan real estate, but there were a few, and as long as the kids made no public appearances related to the team there was no reason for anyone to think that some of the teenagers leaving the Tower every day actually lived in the floors dedicated to the team.

"You mean you started to miss all the noise and wanted everyone back."

"I mean that I wanted you here and you felt guilty about being apart from the team even though the quinjet makes your commute a pretty trivial matter." Tony flashed Steve a grin. "It's nothing serious, I promise."

"I suppose I'll have no choice but to wait and see, hmm?"

"Indeed." Tony grinned and took a big bite of his sandwich. Steve's response was to huff and press a kiss to his noise, obviously enjoying the indignant noise Tony made around the food in his mouth.

God, they'd been together for far too long.

"Sir?" Jarvis' voice spoke up just as Tony was swallowing his bite, ready to tell Steve just what he thought of such unfair tactics. "There is a call from Midtown High School. Apparently they tried to call Wanda and Vision, but as they are on a mission, they couldn't be reached. Your number is the next on the list."

Tony frowned. Jarvis sounded almost nervous, as much as it was possible for him to sound like anything, and that was not a good sign. When he'd first restored his beloved AI from the most recent offline back-ups he'd had at hand, Jarvis hadn't been quite certain how to view the matter of Vision. However, at some point he'd apparently come to view Vision as something of a younger brother, a sort of more reasonable version of Tony's bots. Which had been kind of adorable, until Tony had realized this extended to Jarvis taking a very uncle-like attitude towards Wanda's twins.

Of course, this logic also meant that Tony himself was a grandfather, which was both bizarre and kind of exciting at the same time.

"What's wrong, JARVIS? Has something happened?" Steve was trying to stay calm, Tony could tell, but he could also hear the edge of tension underneath. Tony felt the same thing, imagined himself as a loaded spring, ready to explode into action any moment.

"I don't know, Sir. Shall I let the call through?"

"Yes, please." Tony glanced at Steve. Neither of them moved until Jarvis' voice was replaced by an official-sounding female voice.

"Hello? Would this be the… Rogers residence?" The woman sounded wary, not that Tony could blame her. Though Jarvis sounded normal enough, and was under strict orders not to introduce himself or the Tower if contacted from non-trusted numbers, whatever conversation she'd had with him before the redirection was probably not exactly what one might call normal.

"That's right." Steve's hand found Tony's and squeezed just a bit. "Is something the matter?"

"Right. This is Principal Lee from Midtown High School. I was trying to reach Thomas and William's parents, but they don't appear to be available."

"Right. They are out of town at the moment; the children are staying with us. I'm their grandfather." Well, it was true enough. Not that Tony had any compunctions about lying to preserve a little secrecy. "Has something happened?"

"I would say so." The principal sighed, and oh, that was not a good sign. "Look, there has been an… incident, and I'm afraid one of the boys was involved. Could I ask you to come here as soon as possible?"

"What kind of an incident?" That didn't sound good at all, certainly not when coupled with her reluctance to go into the details. "Are the boys in trouble?"

"There has been a fight." A fight. On the day Tony had encouraged Billy to approach his big, strong crush with unpleasant friends. "Look, I really don't wish to discuss the details on the phone, and we do need you to come to the school. William is waiting."

Steve's eyes widened in surprise; usually it was Tommy who got into trouble. Tony, though, just felt suddenly very cold. "Right. We'll come as soon as possible." They'd never before been to the school, either of them. Wanda handled most of such things, and they had other members of the team listed as valid contacts for when she wasn't available. Tony and Steve were too recognizable to be walking around regular high schools without attracting attention, while Scott or Sam for example could easily handle such matters, particularly since they'd already been familiar with the school from Cassie's time there. However, given that none but Tony and Steve were supposed to be home right now, unless they could get one of others to show up right away, Tony was damn well going to go there in person.

The principal started to say something, but she was interrupted by a sound Tony would have recognized anywhere. There was no mistaking it, not even through the phone line.

He'd heard far too many explosions in his life not to recognize one when he heard it.

*

Billy was, quite frankly, terrified.

He wasn't even sure what exactly he was scared of, or who he was scared for. All he knew was that a deep, bone-chilling sensation of fear had enveloped him and wouldn't leave him be no matter how much he tried to calm down.

Well. He supposed it was better than throwing up, which was the feeling he'd had earlier.

He still wasn't even entirely sure of what had happened. He'd started the school day normally enough, if one didn't count the determination he'd nursed after Tony's little pep talk. Sure, he'd try to get close to Teddy and introduce himself, no biggie, it wasn't like Teddy was one of the big basketball stars and Billy was the weird geeky outcast nobody really liked. He'd get right on that.

Except then he'd seen one of the school bullies, Kessler, intimidating another student. And because apparently stupid heroics ran in his blood, Billy had gotten between them.

What exactly had happened next, he didn't know. He remembered that Kessler had been about to hit him, remembered the other students gathering to watch. After that he only recalled a flash of blue light and a crackling sound, and then there had been shouting and screaming and people running everywhere. Next thing Billy really understood was that he was sitting outside the principal's office and feeling nauseous and terrified.

He was fairly sure he was in trouble, though what he'd done, he wasn't entirely sure. He could recall Kessler screaming, though, so clearly he had done something, whatever it had been.

He'd heard an ambulance outside earlier.

There was some sort of a commotion in the corridor outside, with voices steadily rising in volume. One of them was familiar, and he realized with a startle it was Tommy, Tommy was shouting at someone. Billy could barely make out some of the words, something about a brother and getting in, and oh, he didn't want his brother to get in trouble as well. Tommy was in trouble often enough by himself.

For a second, the voices were lowered again, followed by a moment of silence. Then, just as Billy was starting to wonder whether Tommy might have actually given up so easily, the wall next to the door to the corridor exploded in a shower of debris and smoke.

Billy had no time to react, no time to step aside or seek cover, not that he had much hope of finding such in the small, mostly empty room. However, it appeared he didn't need to. Before any of the flying debris could hit him, a crackling blue shield had formed around him, more or less vaporizing everything that came in contact with it. He was left unharmed but frozen in his seat, staring at the wall that was not there anymore.

Tommy stood in the middle of a cloud of settling dust, looking more furious than Billy had ever seen him. He crossed the room to Billy's side faster than he should have been able to by any right, reaching his hand forward. Billy cried out in protest, but Tommy's hand passed the shield without any apparent difficulty, grasping his arm.

"Come on, Billy," he said, his grip firm but not too much so. "We're going home."

"We can't," gasped Billy, still not sure what was going on but certain of that much at least. "Tommy, we can't! Do you know how much trouble I'll be in if —"

"You're already in trouble," Tommy said, not caring about either the shouting from the next room or the sounds Billy could now hear from the principal's office. "I heard people saying you tried to kill Kessler, which is obviously ridiculous, and besides even if you had he'd have had it coming. And don't even try to protest, you're not as good at hiding bruises as you apparently think you are."

"Tommy," he said, but couldn't think of any further argument. All he could do was grab his bag and stare as Tommy walked up to the outer wall with a thoroughly depressing view of the school yard.

He wasn't sure what he expected, a punch perhaps, for all that it would have been utterly ridiculous. Instead, Tommy seemed to just slap the wall, his hand moving faster than Billy had ever seen him do in their unofficial sparring matches with various Avengers, and this wall, too, shattered outward as though he'd just broken its basic structure. And this was a bad idea, everything about this was a bad idea, yet Billy found himself getting up to his feet and walking to his brother even as he could now hear screams and warnings all around the school.

Tommy didn't seem to pay any mind to the commotion, to the screaming students pouring out or any of the rest of it. He simply walked across the school yard like it had offended him just by existing, holding onto Billy's arm as though afraid he'd disappear if Tommy let him out of his sight. He was a frightening sight, with a mad gleam in his eyes and plaster dust in his already white hair, but somehow he seemed like the only secure thing Billy knew in this entire mess.

"We're not coming back here," Tommy hissed, his voice barely audible over the noise around them. Some people were screaming and pointing, Billy realized, looking at the two of them with the same kind of terror in their eyes that Billy had felt earlier. "I don't care what they say, we're not coming back."

"Tommy, where are we going?" he hissed. "We can't just run away or something!"

"Oh, we're not running away." Tommy gave him a manic grin. "I mean, clearly we're a threat so it's better for all if we go somewhere else, right? So, we're going for ice cream. And before you protest, I texted Uncle Pietro and he says he'll come pick us up when things are over and done with, so it's not like we're just disappearing."

Billy still wasn't sure about this, still didn't think it was a good idea, but being with Tommy made the terror inside him ease a little bit. "Fine," he sighed. "But stop rushing ahead, I'm not running just because you're impatient." Though somehow, he got the feeling there was more to Tommy's nervous fast pace than just that.

It would be fine, though. He had to keep telling himself it would somehow be fine.

He just had to stop feeling so damn terrified.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Steve have quite the situation at their hands when they arrive at Midtown High School. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the twins are nowhere to be found.
> 
> Billy can't quite manage to comfort himself with ice cream, but the appearance of a certain blond has a much better effect, especially when certain other details come to light. Perhaps something good might come out of this mess after all.
> 
> Now there's just his parents to worry about.

Tony had made landings in the middle of very chaotic situations before.

Of course he had, he'd been Iron Man for over twenty years, and wow, he might have to think about retiring at some point, surely there was an upper limit to this kind of thing. Point being, he'd been in the middle of agitated crowds before, and honestly, he'd seen war zones easier to navigate than this public school yard.

For one thing, all the students appeared to be outside, with the teachers trying in vain to put some sort of sense of order into a bunch of out of sorts teenagers, which, wow, he didn't envy that job at all. Of course, any such efforts were made to be completely in vain when Iron Man landed in the middle of the school yard with Captain America in tow. The kids immediately started crowding toward them, and only Steve's best Cap voice asking them to keep some distance saved them from being immediately swarmed.

"Excuse me." That one was a teacher, right? Tony knew kids grew up faster every year, but he was still fairly sure this guy was too old to be a student. "Where can we find Principal Lee?" The maybe-teacher was apparently too awestruck to answer, which, Tony definitely got the sentiment, but it did make communication a bit tricky. However, he did at least point at a direction, which Tony took to be an answer. "Thanks."

Following the direction they found a middle-aged woman talking with a few police officers, and wow, that was so not a good sign. A nervous-looking graying man was standing to the side. They all looked over with wide eyes as Tony and Steve approached, though, whatever conversation they'd been having dying an abrupt death.

"Good afternoon." Steve was all business, his voice calm and respectable and all such things, and Tony was pretty sure one of the police officers actually snapped to attention. "What exactly happened here?"

"Ah! Well, we're still kind of investigating the details," said the woman Tony assumed was Principal Lee. At least the voice matched. "I'm sure it certainly doesn't merit Avengers attention, though. I don't know who alerted you, but I do apologize for wasting your time."

"Actually, we're here on personal business." Steve gave her his best public smile, bright and patriotic and a hundred percent fake. Tony quite agreed; there was nothing to smile about in this. "You called about one of our boys?"

"I… what?" This seemed to take her by surprise. Good. So their attempts at ensuring the boys' privacy hadn't been completely useless, then.

Too bad it would all be blown to bits after this.

"Ah, do forgive my manners." Tony flipped his faceplate up, offering up his own public smile. "I'm Tony Stark, William and Thomas Maximoff's grandfather. This here is my partner, Steve Rogers. You called us right before what I assume was the incident that caused the hole in that wall?" He pointed at the large opening at the side of the school. He had to say it was somewhat impressive.

Now, her eyes widened again. "Oh. Oh! You're their grandfather?"

"Yes. I believe Steve's name should be on their list of approved contacts." Because Steve Rogers was a much more inconspicuous name than Tony Stark. "Would you care to explain what happened here? Starting with whatever incident made you call us, of course."

"Well." She glanced at the police officers as though unsure of which ones she should prioritize, but then finally turned properly towards them. "You see, I'm afraid William was involved in a fight. We are still investigating the details, but it appears he used some kind of an electric weapon on another student."

"Really." Yeah, that was bullshit. Billy could get snarky at times, but he'd never been the aggressive twin. "And you have evidence of this, I assume?"

"We do have tapes of the incident."

"And what exactly do these tapes show?" Steve was in full Cap mode now, and if Tony hadn't been so worried he might have found that sexy. "Did Billy walk up to another student and pull a stun gun on them?"

"Well, not exactly." Principal Lee was visibly uncomfortable now. "There was an altercation involving another student, who may have behaved in a threatening manner. At this point William used some sort of a device —"

"Some sort of a device." No, Tony had no qualms about interrupting her. "And did you find this mysterious device on him? Or at the scene, perhaps?"

"Not exactly, but —"

"So what I'm getting from this is," and oh, someone was going to be in trouble, "there was a fight, Billy was threatened, then something happened, and you decided he must have been responsible even though you have no evidence that he had any sort of a weapon."

"There must have been something, though!" Her voice was getting more agitated, now. "We had to send that poor boy off to the hospital!"

"So something happened, great. I'm sure there will be a very thorough investigation into what it was, and believe me, my lawyers are going to be all over that." Whatever had happened, if Billy was indeed responsible somehow, Tony was fairly sure they could go for the self-defense angle. "Now. Care to explain the explosion?"

"It was him!" Finally the nervous man cut in. Tony had almost forgotten him. "I saw him, with my own eyes! He blew up that wall right in front of me!"

"Billy did?" Steve frowned, and Tony felt just as dubious.

"No, his good-for-nothing brother!" And oh, this was going to be very interesting, Tony could just tell. "I wouldn't let him go to his brother, and he — he just hit the wall, like that, and it exploded!"

"Well, this is getting interesting." Tony sighed. "So Billy is electrocuting people without weapons and Tommy is blowing up walls with his bare hands. Where are they, anyway? I'd rather like to hear their side of things."

"Yes, well, about that." Principal Lee stiffened. "We, ah, we don't know."

Tony paused. When he did speak, he did so in slow, precise words, making sure to radiate his disbelief. "Are you actually telling me that you lost track of my grandsons, in an apparent crisis situation, after one of them had already been involved in a violent incident today?"

The principal tried to gather herself, though with little apparent success. "Well! It's not like we could keep them locked up, when apparently they care very little for walls!" She pointed a trembling finger towards the gaping hole at the side of the school, though Tony wasn't even sure if it was more fear or anger.

"I think you misunderstand." Steve's voice was getting colder. "I believe what Tony is saying is that you had every reason to believe that at least one of our grandchildren was in danger of physical harm, and not only did you lose track of them in the middle of a dangerous situation, you apparently haven't made any attempt at relocating them even though they must have crossed a yard full of people."

"Sir?" Jarvis' voice cut through from Tony's ear piece. "I just received a text from Pietro. He says the children are safe and accounted for, and the mission is wrapped up to the point where he can go to them at a moment's notice if needed." And yes, Tony was an absolute genius to have made an AI who could sound relieved.

"Thank you, Jarvis." Tony glanced at Steve. "Pietro says the kids are safe, so we don't have to worry about that. Which means we can focus on getting to the bottom of whatever happened here." He turned his gaze back to Principal Lee, and at last, she looked nervous. Good. "Now, how about you have someone prepare the tapes of those security cameras? I'll just make a quick call to my legal team, I'm sure they will find this fascinating." Someone, Tony decided, was going to be in big trouble.

Somehow he didn't think it was going to be one of the twins.

*

Blasphemous though it seemed to admit this, Billy wasn't sure even ice cream was going to make him feel better.

The shopkeeper gave them strange looks, no doubt due to all the plaster dust and Billy's forlorn expression, but they got their ice creams anyway. Tommy was still grumbling under his breath as they made it to a table, practically stabbing his ice cream with his spoon. Billy just poked at his own, not sure whether eating it would ease the horrid knot in his stomach or just make his nausea return.

"May I join you?"

The voice went through Billy like an electric shock, and he snapped his head up, staring. No, he hadn't heard wrong. That was most definitely Teddy Altman standing next to their table, looking almost sheepish as he held his own ice cream.

Tommy glared at Teddy, angling himself so that he was covering as much of Billy from sight as he could, sitting next to him as he did. "And who are you?"

"Ah, I'm Teddy. Teddy Altman. I go to Midtown High, too."

Billy swallowed. "You shouldn't have come," he murmured, then winced as he realized how that probably sounded. "I mean, they're definitely going to notice you're missing. You're going to get in trouble for this."

"No, I won't." Teddy seemed to take this as an invitation, sitting down across from them. "I called my mother, and she agreed with me that it's clearly safer for me to be off the school grounds, and if the school gives me trouble she'll take responsibility."

"Still doesn't explain why you're here." Tommy was being very confrontational, but then, Billy supposed he couldn't blame him this once. The whole situation was all kinds of messed up.

"Oh, that. I, ah." Was Teddy actually blushing? "I… kind of followed you. When I saw you leave."

"Dude, that's just creepy." Tommy narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"I… heard about what happened with Kessler." Teddy paused. "Well. I heard what everyone's saying about it, but that's not the truth, is it?"

"That depends on what you heard." Tommy did not look very happy about this particular discussion. "My brother's not a freak or a monster or whatever it is they're saying." Billy shuddered, staring down at his ice cream. He wasn't entirely convinced Tommy was right, there.

"I know." Teddy said it so simply, so calmly, like he didn't even need to think about it. "But you can do things others can't, right?"

"I'm not sure." He'd have liked to say no, but, well. Something had happened there, and while he didn't know what exactly it had been, he couldn't shake the feeling it had something to do with him. "I — maybe?"

"And then there was that hole in the wall."

"That was me," Tommy said very quickly. "I'm the one who did that. Billy had nothing to do with that."

"Hey, I'm not trying to cause trouble." Teddy shook his head. "It's just — I can do stuff, too."

"You… can?" Billy blinked. "Like what?" He'd certainly never seen anything strange, and, well. He'd been watching Teddy. Perhaps a lot.

"Promise not to tell anyone?" As both Billy and Tommy nodded, wordless, Teddy frowned, his face going tense. Then, it… shifted, the shapes and lines moving underneath his skin, hair lightening even beyond its usual blond and his eyes changing color from their usual blue to a steely gray.

Tommy yelped, jerking back in his seat as he was suddenly staring at his own face across the table. "Dude! What the fuck?"

"Sorry, sorry." Tommy's face frowned, and the colors shifted again, and for a moment Billy saw a reflection of himself before it all smoothed back out to Teddy's own face. "I probably should have warned you or something, but, well, it's not like you would have believed me anyway without proof."

"You can change your face." Billy blinked. "No, it's not just your face, your hair changed too. How much can you change yourself?"

"Uh. Pretty much everything? Like, my voice, too. I've kind of always been able to do little bits, but never for long. The first time I did something that stuck was when I really, really wanted to be bigger for the basketball team and I… kind of grew overnight."

"So your summer-time growth spurt was actually even faster." As Tommy glanced at him questioningly and Teddy blinked, Billy flushed. "Um. I swear I'm not a stalker or anything."

"Wait. Is this your crush? Oh my god this is totally the guy you've been crushing on, isn't it?" That was it. Billy was going to kill Tommy. Being an only child would be weird, but he'd get used to it.

Teddy seemed to flush again, but otherwise ignored Tommy's comment. That was good. Maybe Billy would make it through this without killing anyone. "So, ah, you haven't done anything weird before? Sorry, that really came out wrong. I mean, anything unusual?"

"Not really, I don't think?" Billy glanced at Tommy, grateful for the change of topic. Yes, he had been planning to confess to Teddy, but having his brother blurt it out was quite the different matter. "Nothing like this, anyway. I mean, I can kind of do… illusions, I guess? But that's just something I learned, nothing that could affect anyone." And Teddy probably thought he meant magic tricks or such, not actual illusions he'd learned from his very much magical mother. "And, well. It's not like we know if we can do something special or if this was just freak occurrences." He certainly hoped there would be no repeats.

"Eh, I don't know." Tommy gave him another one of those manic grins that were really starting to worry Billy. "I could get used to blowing up stuff."

"Just so you know, I'm really kind of freaked out about that." Even though, well. It wasn't like he hadn't seen explosions before.

"That could be so cool, though." And, okay, this was not a side of Teddy Billy had seen before, and that was saying something. He smiled often, was in good mood most of the time, but Billy wasn't sure he'd ever seen him look this… enthusiastic. "I mean, if you learned to control that you could even become Avengers!"

Now, Billy couldn't help but grin despite the still lingering bad feeling at the pit of his stomach. "Why, you think we'd make good Avengers?"

"Why not?" Teddy tilted his head a little, eyeing them both critically. "You know, you kind of look like Quicksilver." This, of course, made Tommy burst out laughing, which made Teddy frown. "What? You do."

"Oh, I can't keep this up anymore." Tommy mimed banging his head against the table, then glanced at Billy, who was trying to motion for him to shush. Instead, Tommy just snorted. "Oh, please, Billy, you know we're not going back there anyway. If nothing else, Mom's going to have someone's head when she hears that Kessler's bothered you before, and you know everyone's going to get involved in it."

"I think I'm missing something here." Teddy looked utterly clueless, but that was okay. He was adorable when he was clueless.

"What Tommy's trying to communicate," Billy sighed, "is that there's a very good reason why we look like him." He gave his still snickering brother a long-suffering look, then turned to Teddy again. "Hi, I'm Billy Maximoff, this is my brother Tommy. Our mother is Wanda Maximoff, also known as Scarlet Witch."

"No way," Teddy gasped, and Billy was pretty sure his eyes were literally sparkling. "You — your mom's an Avenger?"

"Dad too. And uncle. And grandfather and the whole damn extended family." Tommy grinned. "We used to get picked up from school by Ant-Man and Falcon half the time when we were little."

"Which is supposed to be a secret for reasons such as paparazzi and kidnappers and deranged supervillains, but, well. Like Tommy said, it's not like we can exactly blend in at Midtown High after that." Billy gave Teddy a small smile. "It's kind of a relief, really. It's kind of hard to have a social life when you can never actually mention anything about your home or family, you know?"

"Like you'd be worried about a social life, Mr. Comic book geek." Tommy poked him in the side, but gently. They were brothers, after all.

"Hey, nothing wrong with being a comic book geek." Right. Billy had to be dreaming, clearly, because he could not believe he had just heard Teddy say that. "I have pretty much all the Avengers comics." Then, he ducked his head, and oh, Billy's heart was going to burst if this went on. "Sorry. That probably seems pretty weird to you guys, huh?"

"Eh, I wouldn't say that. I'm pretty sure Billy here has a complete collection, too." Tommy smirked. "Hey, tell you what. Keep us company for now, since it seems to make baby brother so very happy, and you'll get to meet Uncle Pietro when he shows up to get us." And, okay, maybe Tommy could live after all. At least a little bit longer.

Billy might have feared he would be completely tongue-tied with Teddy there, but once they got talking about comics, it was somewhat easier to forget that he was talking to his crush and instead just chat about his interests with another fan. Tommy didn't take part in the discussion aside from the occasional quip, but he seemed to be entertaining himself well enough playing on his phone, getting up once or twice to get them all more ice cream. Billy didn't really keep track, wasn't even sure if he was eating his. He was talking with Teddy, and Teddy was even more perfect than he had imagined, and little by little he got further away from the freezing terror.

Then all of a sudden a white-haired man was standing next to their table where there hadn't been anyone before, and it all came crashing down again.

"Hello boys," Pietro said, then lifted his eyebrow at Teddy and added, "and friend. I've been told to inform you it's high time you get home before everyone worries themselves sick."

"Not before we know what's going to happen." Tommy frowned, a stubborn look on his face. Then, it was more or less the same as Pietro's stubborn look. Teddy's gaze was flitting between the two, and Billy was pretty sure he knew what Teddy was seeing. Billy himself resembled his uncle enough, even with his dark colors, but Tommy was a pretty much spitting image of Pietro, sans the facial hair.

"Neither of you is going to be in trouble." Billy made a disbelieving sound, and Pietro glanced at him. "I mean it. First, before you panic too much, the boy you fried will be fine. Well, it'll probably take him a while to recover, but ultimately he'll be fine." Pietro paused just as Billy sighed in relief. "Well, for a given value of fine. I rather doubt they can do anything about his face."

"That still doesn't mean Billy's not in trouble, though," Tommy pointed out. "Just that he didn't kill the creep. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it."

"That's another thing. Tony saw the security tapes of your fight, Billy, and not only was he very interested in the bit before you put on a light show, you know, with the slurs and threats and such, but according to him they can't really argue that you were responsible for whatever it was that happened."

"I was, though." He knew that with a cold certainty that had settled deep inside him and refused to budge. "I might not be sure what happened, but I know it was me."

Pietro shrugged, not seeming too concerned. "Self-defense is a valid legal defense," he pointed out. "Tony says that based on the tapes and the boy's history as a known bully, you had more than enough cause to fear for your safety. Even if they could somehow pin the electric shock on you, which is unlikely, it's doubtful the boy's parents would try to make it into anything, knowing that our lawyers are more than happy to try and get him for hate crime for his attempted assault."

"Nothing attempted," Tommy growled. "He's hurt Billy before. The little idiot thinks he's good at covering things up, uses his illusions to cover up bruises and shit like that, but it's not like I could miss that."

"This is exactly what I didn't want to happen," Billy murmured, staring at his hands on the table. "I never wanted all the Stark lawyers scrambling to my defense or whatever."

"It's not just you, though." Teddy reached over the table to cover one of Billy's hands with his, and that made Billy feel incredibly warm. "He's bullied other kids, too. You were protecting someone else when this happened, weren't you? And, okay, maybe this is a mean way of thinking about it, but maybe next time some big bully at our school threatens someone else they'll think twice about it because of this."

"Like you'd know anything about that," Tommy snorted. "I'm pretty sure a grown grizzly bear would hesitate about bullying you."

"Hey, I wasn't always this big." Teddy gave a somewhat sheepish smile. "Besides, I kind of take it personally when people get bullied for being gay." And, okay, maybe Billy's heart skipped a beat at that.

Pietro cleared his throat. "Aaanyway. Tommy's not in trouble either, which I think is utterly ridiculous, but hey, we'll take what we can get. According to the police as long as they don't find any traces of explosives at the scene or in Tommy's locker or whatever, they can't really blame him for it. If someone tried to take a kid to court for slapping a wall down, they'd get laughed out for sure."

"I have no idea what you mean. I'm the very image of innocence." Tommy offered Pietro a sharp grin.

"Oh, I'm sure." Pietro gave him one in return. "And if I'm right about what's going on, things are going to get very interesting in the Tower very soon."

"What do you mean?" Because Billy certainly couldn't think of any rational explanation for this.

"Oh, we'll discuss that when we get home. Also what you're going to do now that there's no fucking way we're sending you back to that school. For now, you've paid for your treats, yes? Good. I do apologize, Mister Blond and Burly, but I do need to get the twins home. Can I give you a lift? I'll have you know I have a very fast car."

Teddy took him up on the offer, which made Billy both excited and terrified at once. Of course, because Tommy was a little shit he took the front seat next to Pietro, leaving Billy sitting next to Teddy. The easy chatter from before was slow to return, in no small part because Billy was very aware of his uncle and brother listening sharply to every word.

At one point Teddy asked to borrow Billy's phone to show him a video online. When Billy got it back, he noticed that a phone number had been added to his contact list.

Perhaps this day could turn out for the better after all.

*

"So, Billy," Wanda said quite calmly over breakfast a few weeks after what they had collectively started to refer to as The Incident. "When are you going to bring your young man to meet us?"

"What?" Billy spluttered, looking shocked. Tony approved of this, smirking as he nursed his cup of coffee. If he was going to be up before noon after spending most of the previous day fighting against gigantic weasels, the least he deserved in return was the sight of his grandson almost choking on his cereal.

"I do believe you heard your mother." Vision was quite calmly buttering up a piece of toast. For himself. Tony had no idea why he insisted on eating when he didn't need it for fuel, especially such bland things, but Vision kept insisting the texture was pleasant.

Really, he could only blame himself for that. It was more or less inevitable that at least one of his offspring would have a less than standard attitude to food, given the amount of very questionable sludges and other such things Tony himself had ingested during his life, and since Jarvis had no physical body this family trait obviously had to fall upon Vision.

"Pietro and Tommy have both told me about this, ah, I believe his name was Teddy, right? He sounds like a very pleasant young man from what they tell me." Of course, she failed to point out that neither Pietro nor Tommy had probably used the phrase 'a very pleasant young man' in their lives. But then, given their general attitude towards anyone associating with Billy, especially since The Incident, Tony supposed that 'probably not a murderous psycho' counted as glowing praise from them.

"He's nice." And wow, that was an evasive answer, especially given that Tony was very much aware that Billy was quite capable of singing this particular young man's praises all day if given the chance.

"Well, I would hope so, considering that from what I hear you've been spending quite a lot of time with him lately." Wanda smiled. "Do bring him by some time, won't you? I know you're used to not bringing friends home, but clearly things have changed."

"Right." Billy managed a small smile back, then devoured the last piece of his own toast. Tommy had long since left the table. It seemed that from the moment he'd gained some control over his super speed, which still seemed to come and go in bursts, he'd made it his mission to use this new ability of his to waste as little time on the boring parts of life as possible. Tony kind of agreed with him there. "So, hey, were we still supposed to do history revision with Steve this afternoon? I mean, with the mission last night and everything."

"Far as I know, yes." Wanda nodded. They had all agreed that sending the twins back to Midtown was simply not an option, and quickly drawn up a more or less satisfactory home schooling schedule. "Why so?"

"Would it be a problem if I did that on my own right now? Jarvis can help me if I have any trouble, right?"

"I do not see why that would be a problem, no." Vision frowned. "Is there a specific reason for that?"

"Yeah, well. I'll kind of be busy this afternoon." Billy finished eating, now, standing up from the table.

"Oh?" Tony decided this was the perfect opportunity to join the conversation, especially since the caffeine was finally starting to have some effect. "And what would have you so very busy?"

"Oh, you know, this and that. I'm going down to the comic book store."

Tony lifted his eyebrows. "Your new comics just came in two days ago, though." As though he'd have missed that with all the magazines spread all around the shared living room.

"I'm not going in to pick up anything, though." Now, Billy grinned, and for a moment Tony could have almost sworn he saw some of Tommy's usual mischief there. "This time, it's a date." Then, he followed his brother's example and fled the room before the inevitable questions started. Tony could definitely agree with that strategy.

And if he told Jarvis to mention to Billy that he should feel free to come to Tony if he needed any further advice on what to do now that he actually had a very hot big, blond boyfriend, well, at least he had the tact not to do so in front of the poor boy's parents.

Goodness knew Wanda would have never stopped teasing him.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Growing Pains](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5598253) by [Kuismai (Lumelle)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Kuismai)




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